Ceylon

Ceylon was the name used for Sri Lanka under British rule and from independence in 1948 until the country became a republic and adopted the name Sri Lanka in 1972.

British Ceylon: The British colony that governed most of the island of Ceylon from 1815 to independence in 1948. British rule established the colonial name and institutions that continued after independence.
Dominion of Ceylon: The independent state of Ceylon from 1948 to 1972, with the British monarch as head of state. This constitutional form defined Ceylon between independence and the republic.
D. S. Senanayake: The first prime minister of independent Ceylon, serving from 1947 until his death in 1952. He led the country through the transition to independence.
Ceylon tea: Tea grown in Sri Lanka, especially in the island’s central highlands, and marketed internationally under the Ceylon name. Plantation tea became a lasting global association with the name Ceylon.
Sri Lanka: An island country in the Indian Ocean, officially named Sri Lanka since 1972. Sri Lanka replaced Ceylon as the country’s official name when it became a republic.
Kandyan Convention: The 1815 agreement by which Kandyan chiefs ceded the Kingdom of Kandy to the British East India Company and Crown. Its signing brought the island’s last independent kingdom under British control.
Ceylon Constitution Order in Council 1946: The constitutional instrument that established Ceylon’s parliamentary system at independence. It set the legal structure for government during the Dominion period.
S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike: A Ceylonese politician who became prime minister in 1956 and promoted Sinhala as the sole official language. His government’s language policy reshaped politics within Ceylon.
Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka: A Tamil community descended largely from laborers brought from India to work on Sri Lankan plantations during British rule. Their history links colonial plantation labor to citizenship disputes after independence.
Taprobane: An ancient Greek and Roman name for the island now known as Sri Lanka. This classical name predates the European and British use of Ceylon.

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